1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image processing apparatus and its status information notifying method.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, an image input/output apparatus, which has a printer, a copy machine, a scanner, a facsimile apparatus, etc., mounted thereon, and which is so called Printer Copier, Fax Copier, Multi Function System, Multi-Function Station, (hereinafter referred to as multi-Function System) is put on the market. This multi-function system is connected to a Local Area Network (hereinafter referred to as LAN), and shared among a plurality of PCs, which is also connected to LAN.
For transmitting statuses of the respective sections such as print starting and ending, a paper jam, paper-out condition, non-arrival of facsimile, etc., to PC by use of the multi-function system, a special software is executed on PC, and each status is received and transmitted between the multi-function system and PC using the special software.
In order to perform the status transmission from the multi-function system to PC, the special software must be installed onto each PC. For this reason, when the multi-function system is set up, it is necessary to install the special software onto each PC. Also, at the time of exchanging the multi-function system or updating the function of the multi-function system, the special software must be installed again. Thus, in the conventional multi-function system, a significant burden is placed on the maintenance thereof.
The present invention has been made in consideration of the above-mentioned problem, it is an object of the present invention to provide an image processing apparatus, which is capable of a status of each section to a terminal without installing a special software onto the terminal, and to provide its status information informing method.
In order to solve the above object, according to the present invention, there is provided an image input/output apparatus mounting sections, which execute at lest one of image forming processing, image scanning processing and image communication processing. And, the image/output apparatus publishes a hypertext, which has an applet embedded therein, to an outer terminal, and communications with said applet, which is executed by a browser on said outer terminal to which the hypertext is opened. Then, the apparatus transmits the status information collected from each section of the apparatus to the outer terminal and the applet notifies the status information at the outer terminal.
Also, according to the present invention, there is provided a method for notifying status information of each section of an image input/output apparatus mounting sections, which execute at lest one of image forming processing, image scanning processing and image communication processing. In the above method, a hypertext, which has an applet embedded therein, is published to an outer terminal. Then, the apparatus communicates with the applet that is executed by a browser on said outer terminal to which the hypertext is opened. The apparatus transmits the status information collected from each section of the apparatus is transmitted to the outer terminal, and the applet notifies the status information at the outer terminal.